Alabama QB Jalen Milroe’s tough path as a starter: ‘We’re all we got’ | Goodbread

It’s easy to spot from the Bryant-Denny Stadium upper decks, where the view challenges the average pair of eyes to even read a jersey number, much less a player’s demeanor. It’s easier to spot up close, when Jalen Milroe takes the microphone and answers questions about the season he spent two years waiting for as an Alabama football backup quarterback.

The youthful exuberance. The wide-eyed rush of emotion that inescapably goes along with taking over for a Heisman Trophy winner as the Crimson Tide’s most important player. And with that, the deflation when he throws an interception or Alabama’s offense trots off the field after a three-and-out series.

Jalen Milroe wants this. Worse than anyone.

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He is a ball of fire, but one that’s still learning how best to burn.

In both the spring and the preseason in August, UA coach Nick Saban, in referencing all his quarterbacks, emphasized the importance of developing their situational awareness and also their ability to harness emotion, particularly after a bad play. Those are high-level demands for an inexperienced quarterback, especially one that seems to wear his heart on his sleeve as Milroe does.

That’s easier said than done.

The 2023 Alabama team isn’t at all like the situation Milroe’s predecessor, Bryce Young, inherited as a new starter in 2021. Young was largely a ready-made passer who was dropped into a lineup as an instant success with a first-round NFL talent at wide receiver (Jameson Williams), a 1,300-yard rusher in Brian Robinson, and elite protection to his blind side from star left tackle Evan Neal.

Milroe is wildly gifted physically, and an unpolished passer, both at once. Offensive line play in front of him has been below par, and at times, worse than that. His receiving corps has caught the ball more consistently than it did a year ago for Young, but it lacks the fear-striking No.1 option who can get open at will, as Williams did two years ago. After Saturday’s 24-10 win over Ole Miss, Milroe described the team as a work in progress, a phrase that also suits the offense quite well, and even more specifically, Milroe himself.

“In the moment, we have to seize the moment,” Milroe added Monday. “We have to attack every day and acknowledge that we’re not a finished product at all. We’re not a finished product.”

Not by a longshot. But it’s a product that’s off to a 1-0 start in SEC play, and is slowly showing signs of improvement, both on the offensive line and Milroe himself.

The kinks in this offense, four games into the season, are about to either subside or reveal themselves as characteristic hindrances. Those kinks aren’t all on Milroe, but the quarterback in any offense feels the weight of them in a way that nobody else does. Up next is Mississippi State, featuring a defense that has struggled mightily against the pass over the last two weeks, but has also gotten Saban’s attention for its physicality and aggressiveness.

Milroe’s attitude? Nothing if not succinct.

“We’re all we got,” he said. “we’re all we need.”

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin’ Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama QB Jalen Milroe’s tough path as a starter: ‘We’re all we got’